DELAND, Fla. – North Carolina A&T has had some regrettable third quarters this season, but not on Tuesday during the Aggies first game of Stetson University's Holiday Classic against the host, Stetson Hatters. The Aggies turned on the defensive intensity in the third quarter. They never turned it off, including an impressive defensive closeout by senior Maleia Bracone on a buzzer-beater attempt by Stetson, as the Aggies held on to win 57-54 at The J. Ollie Edmunds Center.
The Aggies ended their four-game losing streak, improving to 4-5 during the non-conference season. The Hatters dropped to 3-9. Junior Jordyn Dorsey led the Aggies with 15 points. Senior D'Mya Tucker added 12 points after hitting all four free throw attempts. Chaniya Clark led the way on the glass with 13 rebounds.
After the third-quarter media timeout, Clark followed a Talia Davis miss to cut Stetson's lead to 31-28. After the teams traded free throws, Khamya McNeal drove to the basket to give Stetson a 34-29 lead with three minutes to play in the third quarter. The Aggies took control from there as Dorsey found an open Bracone for a 3-pointer, followed by freshman Paris Locke finding Bracone in transition for a layup to tie the game at 34.
McNeal responded with an and-one to put the Hatters up three before Locke located Laila Acox for a 10-foot jump shot to send the Aggies into the final period trailing 37-36. Locke gave the Aggies their first lead since it was 3-2 with 8:17 remaining in the first quarter when she followed a Tucker miss to provide A&T with a 38-37 lead 58 seconds into the fourth quarter. Acox's jump shot and Locke's putback were part of a 10-0 Aggies run that included a Dorsey 3-pointer to give the Aggies a 44-37 lead. The Aggies remained in control throughout the fourth quarter as Clark put back her miss to provide the Aggies with a 53-44 lead with 1:04 to play. Two Tucker free throws with 38 seconds remaining gave A&T a 55-45 advantage.
But Stetson did make things interesting. Kunzwiler made two 3-pointers within the final 30 seconds of the game, with her last triple cutting the Aggies lead to 57-52 with 16 seconds remaining. Dorsey missed two free throws with nine seconds to play before fouling McNeal. McNeal connected on two free throws to get the Hatters to within three with three seconds to play. The Aggies were then called for a five-second violation when trying to inbound the basketball.
It led to Jordan Peete in-bounding the ball to Kunzwiler for a three. But Bracone closed in on Kunzwiler and contested the potentially game-tying shot, forcing it to bounce off the top of the backboard as the buzzer sounded. Kunzwiler led the Hatters with 14 points on four made 3-pointers.
A&T trailed 29-21 at halftime after shooting 26.9 percent from the floor in the first half. Earlier this season, the Aggies had some difficult third quarters against Georgia, St. Mary's College and UT Arlington. But A&T's third quarter on Tuesday was a defensive marvel. The Hatters missed their first six shots of the third quarter and were just 3-for-15 from the floor.
When Stetson's Anna Kunzwiler finally scored the Hatters first basket of the second half with 5:17 remaining in the third quarter, the Aggies still trailed 31-24. But Dorsey started the Aggies march back by scoring on a layup in the paint. The Aggies return to action on Wednesday in the Holiday Classic when they face an old, familiar foe in the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats at 1 p.m. Both teams were longtime members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC).
The Aggies are now Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) members and the Wildcats belong to the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
